Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Terry catches up with Tito

One thing a trip to Cleveland always means for the Red Sox is that Terry Francona always catches up with his father Tito, who lives in Pennsylvania, driving distance from the Indians’ home stadium.

Tito Francona was in the house before and after Monday’s game, conversing with his son.

How is Tito doing?

“I think pretty good,” said Terry. “He went home last night. He’s doing alright. He’s getting a little old. But he’s doing alright. He walked in, me and Heidi [Watney] were doing the interview last night. He walked right in and said, ‘I just came to say goodbye.’ I said, ‘can you wait a minute?'”

The way Terry looks at it, his dad is living a pretty good life these days, and he makes sure to watch just about every Red Sox game on TV.

“He golfs in the morning, he goes to dinner, they watch the game – it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him,” Terry said. “It gives him something to kind of get juiced up about. He loves it.”

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It seems to me that Terry’s father isn’t around the team that much. Tito was around for the game last night and headed home after from what I have read. The father probably respects the job his son does and gets out of the way. I remember reading a story a few years back, Terry got a call from his father as his father was riding by Fenway Park. I would have thought since his father played baseball all those years that he would be around the team more. I guess Tito is content in watching the game from the distance and letting his son do his thing.

it didn’t hurt them in the end obviously but somebody correct me if i’m wrong. weren’t beltre and cameron supposed to make their defense BETTER? oh well. greg, again i wouldn’t put anything past boras but in this case not sure what he could accomplish. ells is under their control for 3 more years regardless. personally i think ells is just scared because it’s probably the first time he’s ever really been hurt. players these days with all the $$$$ at stake just don’t think the way they used to in terms of playing with nicks and “contusions”. if his ribs were/are cracked i see the issue BUT if they were cracked i would hope the docs in boston could figure that out. although between his and cameron’s situation i really don’t know what to think.

I’m telling you. Whenever you want the Sox to win a game, what you need to do is take up a collection, send me to the game and get me a ticket!!! They don’t lose when I am in the house!!! Beyond that, Wake always pitches well when I’m at the game. I remember when I saw him beat Randy Johnson of the D’backs @ Fenway. Now, he doesn’t always win, a la when I went down to Cincinnati a few years ago to watch them take on the Reds, but he always pitches well. In that game, Pap blew the save in the 9th, depriving Wake of a well-deserved victory, and then CoCo Crisp hit a game-winner in the 11th (that was also the game that Youk celebrated his homecoming with a single, a double and a HR!).

So send me, please!. It was concerning to watch my birthday buddie Terry F. try to figure out how he was going to use his bullpen. With the pitches he had thrown, I really didn’t expect Wake to come back out for the 8th. But clearly, after using Bardie Monday night, Tito didn’t want to stretch him to a 6 out save. Then, when Hafner smoked that shot off the right field wall, I really thought he might bring Bardie in for a 5 out save. Then, when Oki Doki got in some trouble after getting one out, I expected Bardie for a 4 out save. You sensed that if the Indians had taken the lead last night, the game would have been over.

Especially with Pap out, where was Francona to go, with a fragile 1 run lead — to untried Boof Bonser, to Manny D, who started out like a house on fire, and is now again beginning to look like the house collapsing, to Joe Nelson, who sports a 6+ ERA, or to Ramon Ramirez, who started out lamely, and has now looked a bit better, although he still has an ERA of almost 6 (and whose 1 out last night was a ball smoked right at somebody!).

You have to be concerned about the use of Bardie. Despite how good he’s looked this year, 30 appearances in the first 58 games is an awful lot. Maybe its time to think about bringing up Dustin Richardson or Felix Doubront from Pawtucket, or maybe its time for Theo to see what relief pitchers he could get in return for Mikey L.

I agree with wssoxfan’s sentiment. The Sox were supposed to get better defense with Beltre and Cameron, Instead, they are 1st in the majors in team hits, second in runs scored, 5th in team average, 1st in doubles, 2nd in home runs and second in team slugging. They go for defense and get more offense. Its the darndest thing.

Now, one should not overlook that their Team ERA is dropping. Dice-K’s ERA is now down, after Monday night’s beauty, more than a run, to 4.59, and Wake, after allowing 1 earned run in 7 1/3, lowered his ERA to 5.48. Overall, the Team ERA has dropped to 4.25, and, with CYboy and JonLefty next to pitch, seem poised to drop below Texas, the Blue Jays and the Nats in Team ERA.

Let’s find some relief pitching folks. Go Sox….And how about that Strasburg….Wowwww!

Morning everyone,
Congrats to Tim Wakefield for getting another milestone. Now all he needs is 15 more wins. If he pitches like last night again he’ll get it. Fifteen more and he’s surely getting his last milestone before retirement. I hope he gets it.
Beltre and Scutaro are just humiliating to watch. They are like the Titanic and the iceburg. In fairness Beltre is getting all the headlines lately with his stellar performance at the corner.
DBenjamin, if this means the Sox win from now on, all of us will pitch in for plane and game tickets for you :)
Sox need a bullpen. I was thinking about it last night but they have two arms that are reliable (Bard, somewhat with Papelbon). Manny D. is hurt again and Oki’s days are winding down. Bard is overused and Papelbon is also not as reliable as he once was. Ramon is pulling it together and that’s somewhat hopeful. Sox need a bullpen. That, along with shaky Ortiz are big factors in their run to the end. Now they have to catch up with the Yanks.
Dave…

I thought it would be a slugfest. It didn’t happen. The Tribe technical shut out the Sox. The result could be 2-0 Indians. When the Sox were in the state of funkiness, a fielding or throwing error would invariably lead to loss. The Sox would find a way to lose a game but those were the days. Now the error like Beltre’s which led to an unearned run would be overcome or erased by the offense and pitching.
I’d like to see Bucky gets the win and Masterson figures into ND. My preferred lineup for tonight:
Scutoro, Pedroia, V-Mart, Youk, JD, Ortiz, Hermida, Cam, Hall. See if Tito is reading my post.
I don’t think Bard is available tonight.
I don’ think Ellsbury’s injury is Bora$ inspired or something. Simply an agent gets paid more $$ by a cleint who plays not sits. Go Bucky, Go Sox.

it was the pirates and they are the natINALS but strasburg was mucho impressivo! i hope he stays healthy. 99 mph fastball and a 79 mph curve. not to mention a change and slider somewhere in the middle. that’s rediculous stuff.

well if this holds up it’ll be 7 runs in 3 games against arguably the worst pitching staff in baseball. i suppose we should be hitting our knees and giving thx they’ve won 2 of em. worst part is it’ll be 10 losses already to the o’s, indians, and KC combined. that’s bad! i’d wager A LOT that NY and TB combined don’t lose that many to those 3.

The Boof Bonser era has officially started but did it really??? I’ll always remember where I was when the legend a.k.a. Boof Bonser made his Red Sox debut. LOL!! I think he might rename himself to “Poof” because he was gone that fast. LOL!!

I must admit I am very happy for Justin Masterson. Everything I have read and heard about Masterson was always positive, one of the good guys as they say. Way to go Justin M.!

Buchholz wasn’t sharp but good enough to win. But where was the offense? Couldn’t hit a sinking FB. It wouldn’t make any difference whoever was pitching.
My query is why Boof? Why Joe Nelson is still pitching? Why they sent down Atchison? Atchison couldn?t be worse than Boof or Nelson. Or is Atchison worse?

Why would a grown man, with a normal, historically “strong” name like John Paul PAY good money to legally change that name to B O O F ? ? That should say something about his mental character…. I hope that this experiment with him is O V A H!!

I heard in an interview with Wakefield that the he and team celebrated Timmy’s milestone of 2777 innings pitched with champagne on Tuesday night.. Maybe a little TOO much champagne, lol. Masterson, who up until last week had been 1-11 going back to last year, turned out a really good game for his club. I think he paid the clubhouse guy to go in and steal all the RedSox bats or at the very least had someone put a voodoo spell on them, because they were no where to be found last night.
But alas, Tonight is a new night and a new game.
Onward and upward to a new streak. Back on track guys…

Morning everyone,
Well the offense could not have been worse than last night. A steady decline night after night after night. Now the entire lineup can’t hit.
I also think Masterson was running on adreneline. That’s what happens when you face a former club. You find that extra stuff to shut them down.
I don’t blame Tito for going to the fillers to finish the game. The game was lost after the first six innings. Nobody was going to get to Masterson, nobody. He was dynamite.
Tonight is another game though, as Ellen said, and hopefully the offense can stop using those bamboo bats (LOL).
Boof failed at his job. Looks liked he boofed…I know groan anytime.

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